Bristol, UK - Mental Health Awareness Week

Founded by The Mental Health Foundation 22 years ago, the 15th – 21st of May is Mental Health Awareness Week.

Mental health is about how we think, feel and behave. This week is to educate the public about mental health issues and to promote better mental health.

This year’s theme is anxiety.

Lots of things can lead to feelings of anxiety, including exam pressures (the National GCSE Summer Exam series starts during Mental Health Awareness week), relationships, both home and at work, starting or losing a new job and general life events.

With the current cost of living crisis, we can also get anxious about money for basic needs like heating our homes or buying food. Subsequently, some can be at risk of burnout from working too many hours trying to make more money to cover these needs.

In these circumstances, simply offering activities to show willingness will not suffice. Ask your staff/colleagues what would help them with their well-being and managing their stress to devise a plan to help them.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems we can face. In a recent mental health survey, a quarter of adults said they felt so anxious that it stopped them from doing the things they wanted to do a lot of the time. Some of the time, 6/10 adults felt this way. However, it is not all negative news, and taking simple steps to manage your anxiety can help you relax more.

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Focusing on anxiety for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week will increase our awareness and understanding and provide information on what can help prevent it from becoming a problem. The Mental Health Foundation continue to pressure the government and society to demand change. Thus ensuring improving mental health remains a key priority.

Anxiety is one of the elements of stress. Stress is our body’s response to a harmful life event or threatening situation, regardless of whether the threat is genuine. Stress can affect people in many ways and severity, so what may be considered a stressful situation by one may be of little concern to another. Subsequently, some individuals are better able to handle stress than others.

The latest HSE statistics released 2021/2022 show 914,000 workers suffered from work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic were a considerable factor in work-related stress, depression or anxiety. Work-related stress, depression and anxiety are harmful reaction people have to undue pressures and demands placed on them at work. The latest estimates provided by Labour Force Survey (LFS) show that stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 50% of all work-related ill health cases.

The most recent data shows that compared to all workers, females had statistically significantly higher rates of work-related stress, depression or anxiety and males significantly lower.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the predominant cause of work-related stress, depression or anxiety from the Labour Force Survey (2009/10-2011/12) was workload. In particular, tight deadlines, too much work and too much pressure or responsibility. Other factors identified included a lack of managerial support, organisational changes at work, violence and role uncertainty, for example, lack of clarity about the job or being uncertain about what to do.

You can read our full article about Mental Health Awareness Week here.